But negotiations between Secretary of State John Kerry and his counterpart Sergei Lavrov yielded only an agreement to convene again on Monday, with Russian Federation accused of “walking back” on key issues.
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Kerry met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for about an hour Monday in Hangzhou, China, where the Group of 20 summit is being held. The U.S.is arming opposition groups seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad and has special forces troops on the ground, while Russian warplanes have helped the regime reverse earlier losses since joining the fight previous year.
Kerry said the two sides had worked through many technical issues but said the USA didn’t want to enter into an illegitimate agreement.
Turkey’s national unity during the July 15 coup attempt was a “ray of hope” during a time of tribulation, U.S. President Barack Obama said in an interview that aired Sunday.
US officials have said that as part of a deal, Russian Federation would have to halt offensives by Assad’s government, something it has failed to do over months of diplomatic efforts.
Acknowledging that point, President Obama said, “We’ve got a lot of planes, a lot of helicopters, a lot of cars, a lot of guys”. But hopes remain dim, with USA business representatives complaining that China’s “negative list”, which limits market access, was too long, and it looks like the talks are going nowhere.
Sino-Asean expert Xu Liping from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said China’s actions in the South China Sea after the G-20 summit would be proof of whether it was offended by Mr Obama’s decision to talk about the tribunal ruling at a multilateral event. No mobile staircase was prepared for the US president to exit the front door of the plane, forcing him to leave via the lower back door, which has its own stairs.
Obama has expressed skepticism that Russian Federation would hold to its agreement. Interacting with journalists, external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup, said, “This tells you how strongly prime minister intervened on the issue of terror and how be believes that this really is the central challenge facing the moment and unless we have collective approach to this, it will not be possible for us to defeat this”. The president said he would consult with European partners in coming days.
But the focus on climate quickly gave way to the failed Syria talks.
But the USA has always been skeptical of the military coordination part of the deal, because it says Russian Federation has mainly targeted moderate, US -backed opposition groups in a bid to prop up Assad.
Capitalizing on the chaos, Islamic State controls large swathes of the country, while Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham has emerged, sometimes mingling with or fighting side-by-side with more moderate rebels who could potentially feature in a political transition.
A sit-down between Obama and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also laid bare the two North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies’ diverging interests in Syria, with Erdogan pointedly challenging Obama on US support for Kurds fighting the Islamic State group in Syria.
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A Chinese Foreign Ministry official involved in the visit denied it had been a snub, telling the South China Morning Post that the USA delegation had declined to use the usual rolling red-carpet staircase.
